In Depth

The Supreme Court of the United States won’t reconsider a significant unauthorized practice of law case ruled on by
the Indiana Supreme Court earlier this year.

On Oct. 4, the nation’s top court denied a writ of certiorari in the case of State of Indiana, Ex. Rel. Indiana
State Bar Association v. United Financial Systems Corp., No. 84S00-0810-MS-551, leaving intact the state justices’
per curiam ruling from April involving the Indiana State Bar Association’s UPL action against Indianapolis-based estate-planning
services company United Financial Systems.

The ISBA in October 2008 accused United Financial of operating an illegal trust mill operation, and the justices determined
that UPL had occurred. The court ordered the company to stop engaging in any conduct that might be considered UPL and said
that the company should have been on notice about the unauthorized nature of its conduct after a previous ruling in 2006.
The justices also ruled that the ISBA is entitled to certain statutory attorney fees and that the fees United Financial Services
received because of its UPL should be returned.

Indianapolis attorney Kevin McGoff with Bingham McHale represented the ISBA on the matter, and Indianapolis attorney Ron
Elberger with Bose McKinney & Evans filed the SCOTUS request on United Financial’s behalf in July. The court took
the matter into consideration for its Sept. 27 conference before denying the petition in the first week of the court’s
new term.